Wander Lusting

Kyoto, Japan

2009-02-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

I walk the streets of Japan till I get lost....

Yes, the Audioslave song was going through my head almost the entire time of our 4-day trip to Kyoto. And, for the record, it is quite easy to walk the streets of Japan until you get lost and quite fun as well.
Kyoto has been called the most 'Japanese' city in Japan. They have passed laws restricting the height on buildings and against the use of too much neon to preserve a more traditional look to the city. While some residents would prefer the city to modernize (a la Tokyo), for the tourist, we were quite grateful for Kyoto the way it is. The city is much more expensive than Korea or China and has its own distinct feel to it.
We stayed for three nights at traditional Japanese inns, called ryokans. They were pricey, clean and very Japanese. It felt right to come home and sleep on our mat, which was actually more comfortable than many hotel beds I've slept on. I would highly recommend this choice of lodging.
Public transportation in Kyoto is very convenient and easy. There are 2 subway lines and a seemingly infinite number of buses, as well as trains and taxis. Buses are the best bet and they are 220 yen per single ride (around $2.20 USD). For the hardcore day of sightseeing though, you can buy all day passes for the buses for 500 yen (around $5 USD) or all day passes for the subway and buses for 1200 yen (around $12 USD). These are a good value as there are a multitude of temples scattered about the city. There are also maps with the bus lines that link different sites to make your trip more efficient.
The food in Kyoto was very pricey but very good. You can easily find a cafe that will serve a nice filling bowl of noodles for around $5 or so. This will help stretch the travel budget. Our best meal was dinner at a pub/restaurant where you ordered 'dim sum style.' The menu just had many different small dishes for a couple of dollars each. We ordered 5 different rounds between the 2 of us and it was a great way to sample a broad spectrum of the local fare. There are also a multitude of prohibitive looking restaurants that don't even have signs, simply sounds coming from within. According to the guidebook, places like these were welcome to tourists albeit intimidating.
The sights in Kyoto are nearly endless. They include a myriad of temples and shrines, museums, a wonderful castle, and more. We were there in the off-season so many of the sights had limited access. Nijo Castle is definitely worth it. Kinkakuji (with the golden pagoda) and Toji (with the seven-story pagoda) temples are two of the must-sees as well. Wandering Gion, the district of the city most well known for geisha, at night is also necessary. Stroll the streets and follow your eyes and nose into the various shops and restaurants. Its good fun. Speaking of good fun, Arashiyama Monkey Park is definitely worth your time. You get to pay at the base of the mini mountain and hike to the top where you will find the 150 or so free roaming Japanese monkeys. They pretty much go about their business as you walk by. You rarely get a second glance from them. If you care to pay an extra dollar you can buy apples or peanuts to feed them. Allison got quite the kick out of this, buying about 3 bags of food. In addition to monkeys, the park also provides some very nice views of Kyoto, especially the Arashiyama district. When you are finished playing with the monkeys, wash your hands, hike down and grab a rickshaw ride around the picturesque bridge and river. This will work up an appetite, so go to a tofu restaurant and chow down!
All in all, Kyoto was a great trip. The canals and cafes make it much more relaxed than the typical on-the-go Asian city. There are plenty of sights and fun to be had though. However, I had the most fun walking the streets until we got lost...

Our ryokan, bedding is in the closet. Very, very comfortable.

Instead of bibles in the hotels, here we have Buddha's teachings

The entrance to Nijo Castle.

Someday I would like a moat around my house too.

Garden inside Nijo Castle.

Yep, that would be Tommy Lee Jones lending his face to sell some coffee!

The lovely golden pagoda at Kinkakuji Temple.

The scenic river in the Arashiyama district.

You guessed it. The monkey park.

Us and the monkey checking out Kyoto from above.

Dinner. Mmmm.

Pontocho, Gion District

Rickshaw ridin'

Toji temple

We caught the earliest cherry blossoms

Harbin, China

2009-01-31T21:50:00.001-08:00

So starting in Beijing is probably the best idea in mainland China. From there, I would recommend getting out to see more of the real country. A great choice, that is only a mere overnight train ride away, is Harbin!
The city is a couple of hundred miles from the Russian border which provides for a very nice fusion of Russian influence on the Chinese city. Many of the buildings are the more classical Russian architecture, which provides a welcome break from the efficient Asian high-rises. The reason we chose Harbin was because of their famous annual Ice and Snow Festival which officially opens around January 5 of every year, but is usually up and running about a week or so ahead of time for the Christmas holiday.
We only spent a day and half there, but it was quite nice. The weather at night dropped to at least -30 degrees Celsius. As you can see from the pictures we were very bundled up. It was very worth it though.
We stayed at one of the nicer hotels in the area that was right on the main pedestrian street, Zhongyang Dajie. Thats what $40 USD will get you there. The food was good, cheap, and plentiful. We had lunch at the The Russian Cafe and chose a local joint for dinner. Try Harbin Beer if you get the chance. There are many nice little cafes as well to get a break from the cold with some tea and snacks.
The best sight in the winter time is the Ice and Snow Festival which is simply amazing. I will let the pictures below speak for themselves. The theme this year happened to be Disney and something I have learned is that the Chinese like to do things BIG! Like the Cinderella Castle made from ice below....yeah, big. There are many more sights too, such as St. Sophia's cathedral, which is also pictured below and definitely worth checking out. We didn't have nearly as much time as we would have liked, but we got our fill of the magnificent Ice and Snow Festival and were very pleased with that. Picture two 24 year-olds running around like wee children taking pictures with Disney ice sculptures. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Good times!

USA and Russian shops side by side, kind of like holding hands.

St. Sophia's....very nice.

Playing in the snow and ice.

I don't care who you are, that's just plain awesome.

Hangin' with our buddy the snow dragon.

The grand work in progress at the Snow Festival.

A ferris wheel and fireworks? Yep, that would be Disney!

Cinderella's castle made of ice. They don't mess around here.

On our way in to the Ice Festival.

Us and Steamboat Willie.

The girl likes The Little Mermaid.

I told you...we were like little kids. And Toy Story.

No explanation necessary.

Aladdin's Palace. It was getting a bit chilly by this point.

That would be Pirate Mickey and the Black Pearl from the Pirates movies.

We topped off the evening with a nice slide down from the castle.

Beijing

2009-01-30T22:33:00.001-08:00

Beijing is wonderful city. It was bashed by the tour book for tearing down the old city walls, which was decades ago, and for all of the rapid modernization and destruction of many of their famous hutongs (alleyways) in preparation for the Olympics and forthcoming emergence as one of the world's great cities. True, the modernization is undeniable. And true, it was probably a lot cooler with the additional hutongs and the city walls were probably awesome. However we found a city with plenty of character and the sites to match. We spent about 4.5 days in Beijing and we could have spent a month.

We stayed in a hostel in the Wanfujing area. This is a good location in the city. It is just east of the Forbidden City, which ironically is incredibly crowded. From the Wanfujing area you will have no problem catching the subway, buses, or a taxi to wherever your heart desires. Just make sure to have your hotel write the name of your destination in Chinese for the cabbies, as their English is limited to none. The subway is crowded but convenient and cheap. One ticket costs about $ .30 USD. Between the Wanfujing stop and the Tian'amen stops, the subway gets exceedingly packed. We actually saw a guy's hood to his jacket hanging out of the door of a coming train. I guess they just couldn't pack anything else in.
The food in Beijing is some of the best and cheapest I have ever come across in a capital city. For the budget traveler you will have no problem finding a huge plate of fried rice or noodles for about $2.50 USD. Another must for the foodie is to visit the Wanfujing Snack Street. It is 100% touristy, but undeniably fun. You can try such delicacies as sea snake, sheep testicles and penis, starfish live scorpions, and sea horse (which the vendor assured me was good for my penis). That's good, I was curious. I am pretty sure that your average resident Beijing-er does not sit around their home on a Saturday snacking on testicles, but the street is a good time. Another food must in Beijing is of course the roast duck. We had a amazing dinner on Ghost Street, which is lined with restaurants on either side and lit with red lanterns everywhere. We got the tip for our restaurant from a traveler we met the previous day. He gave us the manager's mobile number and name. We had our hotel make reservations and Vicki (the manager) spoke very good English. She even topped off our duck dinner with a tour around the restaurant's kitchen and 3 separate courtyards that help house overflow guests in the summertime. We ate very well on this trip for not a lot of money.
The sites in Beijing are well known and deservedly so. The Great Wall, of course, is a must. You can probably have your hotel book a bus trip out, or just do it yourself. The Summer Palace deserves almost a full day to enable you to see the entire grounds. The Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Olympic stadiums, etc are all well and good. A definite must see is Lama Temple. It has its own subway stop, and is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. It is stunning. Make sure you do not miss the giant carved Buddha at the very back. Our friends visited the zoo and said it was a little disappointing, but the pandas were cool. Try to visit the Temple of Heaven on the weekend if you can. I have no schedule of this, but when we were there on a Sunday, we met a great big group of middle-aged Beijingers playing cards and dancing like it was their day to get away from the kids and grandkids. They tried to get us to dance with them to no avail and it was very cool.
The shopping is Beijing is a great deal price wise and a great deal of fun. We visited the Pearl Market and the Silk Market, both of which sell almost everything under the sun. If you have the stomach and the resolve to brave the crowds, the yelling ('hey lady, lady, lady!'), and the touching (contrary to what we were told, the vendors definitely grab you) you will find some well priced goodies. There are pearls and endless rows of jewelery, knock-offs of almost any brand you could imagine from Coach purses to Columbia jackets, limitless scarfs, men's and women's clothes, obscene amounts of shoes and boots, backpacks and luggage, and so on. Haggle like hell. If you have not agreed on a price until you are actually walking away, you are not haggling enough. Just have a price in mind of what you want to pay and start a little bit lower than it. Be ruthless because the shopkeepers are, but it is a good time. Most of them are very nice and are good sports about the haggling. We were told many times about what 'tough' shoppers we were. It felt quite good. Almost as if I actually enjoyed (gulp) shopping.
All in all, Beijing is a city on the move. It still has lots of culture and hutongs, even if they used to be better and more prevalent. The city has a neat communist feel to it as well. It has the humongous, function-based (aka ugly) government buildings and large open squares. Everywhere you went it seemed there was someone keeping an eye on you. But amidst all of this you will see capitalism at its finest. There are giant posters of the new LeBron James sneakers and Brad Pitt was lending his face to Tag Heuer. You can buy almost anything, anywhere. It is amazing to think that China was only officially 'opened up' less than 30 years ago.

So yeah, I didn't know that you can ride a mini roller coaster to get to part of the Great Wall either.

Mmmm, delicious duck.

Happy campers.

Ghost Street.

Oh, you know. Just hanging out on a frozen lake at the Summer Palace in China. Same old, same old.

Lama Temple

Lama Temple.

Snack Street

You guessed it! Sheep testicles.

Riding the pedi-cab.

The Temple of Heaven

Cuteness and the Forbidden City

Us inside The Forbidden City, it was cold.

Hey there Mao!

Macau

2009-01-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

So Macau is a 1 hour ferry ride from Hong Kong and if you are in HK, you should definitely go to Macau. We messed up a bit with our times and we ended up having about 3 hours to spend there before having to catch our ferry back. This turned out to be quite a shame as Macau is far more interesting than we had originally thought.
It is billed as the "Las Vegas of the East" so when you think of Macau your thoughts immediately turn to casinos and decadence. However, there is much more culture and interesting history there. Macau is another SAR, Special Administrative Region, just like Hong Kong. Whereas Hong Kong was colonized by our English friends from across the pond, Macau was colonized by the Portuguese. This results in a pretty cool mix between Europe and China. It was very refreshing to see Europe-style piazzas and buildings. All of the signs are in Chinese, Portuguese, and English.
For food, Macanese is very unique and delicious. We scored a very nice lunch at the ferry terminal. Allison ate lamb stew and I had a roasted pigeon (never knew you could them right?) and a seafood noodle dish. For dessert, you must have the egg tarts, which they are rightfully famous for. They are pure taste explosions. Sort of like a delicious omelette inside of a pastry shell.
For sights, we had time to see about 3 things. There is an old fort overlooking the city right next to St. Paul's cathedral, which has mostly been reduced to ruins. Unfortunate, but it is easy to picture the impressive site that used to be. We also ventured into a few alleyways, and enjoyed some more egg tarts. Allison, the Indiana Jones fans that she is, dragged us to the Rua des Felicidades (the Street of Happiness) where the opening scenes of "Temple of Doom" was filmed. It was the former "Red Light District" of Macau and the scene where Willie and Indy jump out of the nightclub and into Short Round's taxi took place on this street. Being the "Las Vegas of the East", of course we had to see a casino. So we chose the biggest and baddest of them all, the Grand Lisboa, which is right across the street its older, more seedy relative, the landmark Casino Lisboa. We got in, played a few slots, DOUBLED OUR MONEY, and left. Booyeah!
Overall, Macau is a fascinating city, and an afternoon, or even 1 day is not enough time to do it justice. I would plan at least 2-3 days to explore it properly.

All that remains of St. Paul's Cathedral in Macau

Taken from the Fort with the Grand Lisboa in the background

Europe? China? Hmmmmm.

Chinese, Portuguese, and English

The Street of Happiness, where they filmed part of "Temple of Doom"

A very nice Macanese lamb stew

No explanation necessary.

Hong Kong

2009-01-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

We've been sooooo lazy this week. Got back from the whirlwind China trip on Sunday around midnight and have not updated the blog until Friday. Sorry.

To get things rolling....how about Hong Kong? Sound good? I thought so.

If you are visiting multiple cities in China, I would recommend starting with Hong Kong. Its kind of like an exotic NYC. There were many times when I felt like we were in Manhattan. There is plenty of English to get around quite easily but when you get off the beaten path, you will find very cool Chinese culture (which is hopefully the reason you are traveling).

If you are on a budget you should stay in Chungking Mansions. Although getting to your room will be an adventure and you get travel through 'little Pakistan' to get there, there will probably not be a more centrally located, cheaper place to stay. Our room was VERY small but clean and around $40 USD per night. For location, it took us 5 minutes walk to Victoria Harbor and Star Ferry. If you are not on a budget, your choices are endless.
The first thing you should do in HK is climb "The Peak" via the Peak Tram. You will find good food, shopping, and amazing views of the city. Hopefully, on the day you go, the 'mist' a.k.a. pollution blowing in from mainland China, will not be too bad. There is a short hiking path around the peak which provides a very nice break from sidewalks and more cool views.
The public transportation is very easy to figure out. You can take ferries, the MTR, buses, or cabs, and all are quite inexpensive.
For food, you should definitely wander and decide where to eat judging by the smell. There are endless choices for food, ranging from all forms of Chinese to Italian to Indian to Middle Eastern to American diner. The best meal we had was a hole in the wall Chinese place around the Mong Kok markets. They spoke not a word of English and were fairly surprised to see 3 Westerners wander into their establishment, but served us some amazing roast duck and pork that was so tasty and tender that chewing was practically optional. It was also about $5 USD per meal.
Shopping in Hong Kong has a well deserved reputation for being amazing. While we only made it to the Mong Kok market (one of the more touristy ones), there are many more to check out. Haggling is fully expected and accepted and quite fun. Probably start at around 1/4 or less of the asking price and go from there. We found some sales people in the markets to be a little temperamental about bargaining, but don't worry about it, there are many more that aren't. The copy watches and copy bags only seem to come out at night. Ask to be taken to the showroom if they have one.
Sights in Hong Kong include the well known like Victoria Peak which must be done, several museums, and of course Disney Land. Lesser known are the many temples. We visited Man Mo temple in Central and Po Lin on Lantau (one of the outlying islands). Man Mo is easy to get to and worth it. Po Lin is a bit more difficult to reach, but very, very worth it. You need to take a ferry and 2 buses, both of which are well-marked, and your reward is pictured below. A giant Buddha, a very nice monastery, and the option to have a nice monk-prepared lunch. Come on now, who's had a monk cook them lunch before?

Bottom line, Hong Kong is a sweet SAR, Special Administrative Region, meaning it is part of China but gets to keep its free market economy and social and legal systems. Check the history books, this is a travel, not history blog. You have about 7 million people, most of which are crowded into about 8 miles or so of the total land mass, including Kowloon and Hong Kong island. Stay in that area and you find the great, vibrant feel of one of the great cities of the world. However, travel to the rest of HK and you find parks, monasteries, hiking, and culture. Hong Kong has a very cool feel to it that is hard to put into words until you go. Check it out for yourself and enjoy.

Our friend and "tour guide", Andy.

Yep, the dragon boats still exist, barely.

Here is a holdover from the colonial days.

Man Mo temple. A nice break from the skyscrapers and high rises.

Chicken or duck anyone?

How about some pork?

Where's that giant Buddha? There he is!

Po Lin is worth the trip.

Us and Hong Kong's most well known attraction, the skyline.

Don't you wish your government cared this much?

2008-12-19T03:42:00.000-08:00

So yeah, its front page news and just in case you haven't checked it out yet....

Click here

It's pretty funny. Make sure to watch the video.

Korea is known for sporadic violence in politics. And I suppose it is an issue of embarrassment. But I just can't help but think how fun it would be to have sporadic violence in American politics. I mean, wouldn't it be fun to see Nancy Pelosi's smug mug getting smacked around a bit? Perhaps we could bring shoe-throwing over from Iraq? I am thinking the fight rules would be kind of like hockey. Both individuals involved would be allowed to fight until they hit the floor. Then it would be broken up. They each get sent to their respective offices for 5-10 minutes to cool off and then come back out onto the floor. If there is a third person who jumps in, they get a more severe penalty. Like they can't vote for the next session. Just a thought...

Relaxing with soju on a Thursday afternoon...

2008-12-10T21:36:00.000-08:00

So December 10 and here are 6 exciting things! You're welcome!

Our trip Hong Kong and China is booked, paid for, ripped, roarrin' and ready to go! Plane tickets, train tickets, hostels/hotels, and visas are all set. We have a countdown on of 13 days, 19 hours, 41 minutes and 31 seconds, no 30, now 29, 28, 27, 26....you get the point. We're not excited or anything.
We have a Christmas concert on December 24 for the kids. We get to prepare 2 songs for each class and my class is reciting their "Dear Santa" letters as well. My class is singing "Christmas Don't Be Late", yes that's right, the chipmunks Christmas song. I figured their voices all sound like the chipmunks anyway so it is an obvious choice. We are also dancing our booties to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Easy songs I know but the "Dear Santa" letters are tough...you try teaching 7 year old Korean kids the word 'appreciate.' Actually they are doing ridiculously well and they practice singing and dancing all class whether I tell them to or not. Allison's class is going to be rocking out to "I'm Getting Nothing for Christmas" and "Up on the Housetop." Nothing but 100% cuteness will be forthcoming I'm sure.
Our Pittsburgh Steelers are rocking out baby! At least our defense is. The offense has a ways to go. But to have a 10-3 record with our outrageously hard schedule so far is nothing less than impressive. My 3 most hated NFL teams (New England, Dallas, and Baltimore) in a row. 2 victories down, 1 to go!
The weather here is unreasonably nice right now. Its been mid-50s and sunny the past week. I'll take that in December any time.
You know how you have certain musical artists who you kind of forget about, and then get back into listening to several years later. I am doing that with Ben Folds right now. I have the songs ripped on the computer (thanks Johnny F) and have literally not listened to them since like 2003. I forgot how amazing his songs are. If you are not listening to Ben Folds right now, you should be. Download or buy his live album. He is just a good musician. Singer, songwriter, plays piano, guitar, bass, drums and more. I mean, anyone who writes lines like "y'all don't know what its like being male, middle class and white" and "Won't you let me explode in a karaoke supernova? " and covers Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" in concert (and does it awesome!) is worth listening to.
We are getting packages of wrapped presents from our family. They (our family) are the best!

Guess that is about it. In honor football season, how about some Pittsburgh pics? Sound good? I thought so.

They have mullets in Korea, lots of them actually. But there is just something about a genuine Pittsburgh mullet....(sigh).

I understand he is just a random drunk guy with no shirt we met while tailgating before going to the Steelers last home game in 2005 (the year we won the Super Bowl!!!) but I miss him. Oh yeah, and I really miss Matthew Voland. I am in desperate need of the 'pearls of wisdom' the spew from his mouth.

And finally, yes I understand Allison hated it, I miss my beard. It was sweet. I grew it while studying abroad in Germany, perhaps there is a parallel to be draw with teaching in Korea and growing it back....hmmmm.

A Seoul-ful Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T00:31:00.000-08:00

Haha, puns are fun! And so is delicious turkey dinner!

So we decided to shell out the money (40,000 won per person, about $30 USD) and attend the first annual Big Rock Tavern Thanksgiving Dinner buffet on Saturday in Seoul. Honestly not expecting much but craving this taste of home, the decision was not a hard one. Especially since, after doing a quick survey of our Korean teaching partners at school, we discovered that Koreans don't eat turkey. So our chances of attaining this wonderful fowl were quite limited outside of this particular time of year. We were expecting some dry turkey, instant mashed potatoes, and some other poor excuse for stuffing and pumpkin pie. What we got was very good, juicy turkey, roast beef that literally melted in your mouth no chewing required, real mashed potatoes, real sweet potatoes, HOMEMADE stuffing (my mom doesn't even make that! I'm used to the 'StoveTop' variety), a lovely vegetable medley, homemade cornbread, very good pumpkin pie, warm apple cobbler, and lots of GRAVY BABY! And to top it off, they were replaying the NFL games from Thanksgiving Day. Not too shabby. Now, the tavern did not quite time the cooking of the turkeys correctly and there was some considerable waiting involved about half way through the feast, for which the owner compensated by giving out some FREE BEER! Free beer? Why not?
So all in all, it was the great taste of home we wanted and the evening was full of giving thanks and baring your Seoul. Ok, that was lame, I'm done with the puns now...promise.

Yeah! Carve that turkey baby!

Happy and in a food-induced coma...

How to Ride a Bicycle in Korea

2008-11-23T00:13:00.000-08:00

This idea for a post may not be original but hopefully I can at least make it entertaining with a tiny bit of useful information. We have been here since September and have been riding our bikes to school and on the weekends for recreational purposes for about 2.5 months. Being that Suwon is quite flat, it has been a pleasure. If you rule out the unnecessarily brutal winds of the past few weeks I would say that we love riding here. Of course, there are some things to get used to while riding your bike in Korea....

DON'T ASSUME ANYTHING! The adage is that assuming will make an ass out of you...assuming while riding your bike in Korea might just kill you. Do not assume that the car creeping along won't speed up and clip you if you try to pass in front of it. Do not assume that the pedestrian walking towards you, who has clearly seen you for the past 15 seconds, won't rapidly change their walking direction to cross your path (kind of like a deer.) Do not assume that cars, trucks, motorbikes, or anything will not just randomly make a U-turn. And never, ever assume you have the right-of-way. 99.99% of the time...you don't.
Ride Assertively. Just like when you learned to drive a car.... If you are too aggressive you will cause an accident. If you are too passive and defensive, you will cause an accident. Here, if you are too aggressive, you die. If you are too passive, it will take 1 hour to ride 5 blocks. While you should not assume anything (see above), it is safe to say that drivers will accommodate you as long as they see you well in advance. Many times it can be safer to ride on the side of the road.
Watch out for children. I know Korea's birthrate is one of the lowest in the world, but they are everywhere. They are most prevalent while you are speeding around a corner.
Follow the locals. While riding your bike in Korea, you will encounter seemingly impassible construction sites. In North America, these work sites would be roped, taped, and barrier-ed off from the public with a dozen or so lazy government employees standing around to make sure you don't come close. In Korea, the construction workers are always...doing construction it seems, imagine that. It is up to the public to find their own way around. This is often not as hard as it sounds. Follow the old man riding beside you or the lady hiking in 4-inch heels. They will know what to do. It may take a little off-roading but that never hurt anyone.
Beware the pollution...nuff said. Breathe through your nose.
Finally, RIDE! It is very pleasurable riding bicycles here. The land is flat and the roads and sidewalks are normally very accommodating. The cool fall has been quite nice and it is great exercise. Koreans are a very warm people and will normally help you in any way they can.

Of course, we need bicycle pictures... I don't think we have any biking pictures in Korea so I will put a few from Barcelona and Amsterdam...

*update - could not find the bicycle pictures from Amsterdam...so I'll give you pictures of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and a fat lady instead. Cool? I thought so.

We do spend time with people our own age too, I swear

2008-11-17T04:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, the school where we teach in Suwon is called Maple Bear. And yes, it is just as Canadian as it sounds. Actually, a Canadian franchise, and our particular school is owned by Koreans. At any rate, if our friendly Northern neighbors weren't so nice we would be having a 'not-happy' time here. In full disclosure, our joining the school has made the staff almost half American half Canadian (not that there is a difference anyway).
Moving on, I have noticed that most ex-pat teachers here, no matter the nationality, share a common interest in adventure, helping others, and going out and having an unreasonably good time. While we all may have different reasons for making the leap from the comfort of 'home', most of us understand that your time working abroad, like life itself, is what you make of it. Attitude dictates your level of fun and the quality of your experiences. The trick is to get out of your comfort zone and see where that takes you. This ties in nicely to the general theme of this silly blog. Go out, wander if you will, and experience something that seems crazy to you....TRAVEL! You won't be sorry.
Here are just a few random pics (more on the way) of some cool peeps and friends here....except for the sexual harassment panda. I'm not sure how that got there...

Allow me to introduce our children...all 40 of them

2008-11-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

When we accepted jobs in Korea to teach kindergarten, we knew exactly what we were getting into. I mean, given our professional backgrounds, Jeremy in business, technical recruiting, and sales, and Allison with international security and intelligence (CIA stuff), OF COURSE we were TOTALLY prepared!
Actually, teaching has gone about 100x better than either of us could have hoped. We get to play games, do crafts and activities, and sing songs for 6 hours per day. Not too shabby. About 90-95% of the time the kids are quite well behaved and fun, and it would not be inaccurate to say that we do indeed enjoy it. The school we work for, Maple Bear Yeongtong in Suwon, is also pretty sweet. They send us on field trips and always have some fun things planned for the kids. Yesterday we took a trip to Seoul to see an English language children's play called 'Shadow Thief.' The kids thought it was an absolute riot. Makes our job easier.... Below are pictures of the field trip, our Halloween party, our 'sports day', and a few randoms. FYI, sometimes they understand the 'smile' thing, sometimes not. GOOD TIMES!

Welcome!

2008-11-09T02:09:00.000-08:00

OH MY GOD....COOL RANCH DORITOS! We've been in Suwon, South Korea for about 3 months and have managed to get by on mostly local food (with a few snacks and sweets from home) and it's been absolutely delicious. Galbi (marinated, barbequed pork), samgyeopsal (barbequed pork from a different part of the pig....kind of like very thick pieces of bacon), and su-galbi (barbequed beef) are some of our favorites along with shabu shabu (beef, noodles, mushrooms and veggies cooked in a hot pot) and dok galbi (chicken, cabbage, spinach and chili paste cooked in a pot in the middle of the table) round out the best food we've had here. Eating in Korea is very social, with large groups eating off of a communal grill/pot in the center of the table with a never-ending array of side dishes and bottomless bottles of soju (a slightly less potent version of vodka which Koreans drink like water). We've also had great pizza, Subway, delicious Indian food, McDonald's, and KFC but I don't know that I've tasted anything as good as the bag of Cool Ranch Doritos we just inhaled. We finally found a Foreigner Grocery Store (one small room with three shelves...) in Seoul that had the most random assortment of Western food products you can imagine. We found ranch dressing (unheard of in Korea), Velveeta Shells and Cheese, Swanson's Chicken Broth, Twizzlers, Cherry Coke, Pop Tarts, Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Wheat Thins, and all kinds of other goodies that we've been denied for three months. It was like being in heaven. Until I asked how much the Shells and Cheese were and was informed "$7!" I bought it anyway. Along with Doritos, Twizzlers and a Rice Krispy Treat! I blew $27 on those few things and don't even care! In all seriousness though, the local food and drinks are sooo good here that we've hardly missed the more familiar brands of home. It was just a really nice surprise in Itaewon today to find that stuff and we had to splurge.
Food ramblings aside, welcome to our travel blog. We've been traveling for about 4 years now and have been to Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Canada, England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, the Czech Republic, the Canary Islands, Egypt, Jordan and Korea. Over Christmas we have a trip planned to Hong Kong, Macau, Beijing, and Harbin, China to visit their annual Ice Festival. Our idea with this blog is to share some of our travel stories, offer some tips that we've learned on our trips (some the hard way!), and encourage anyone who reads this to never feel like they CAN'T travel somewhere. So many of our friends have told us, "Wow I wish I could go there someday," or "I would really love to do that." We're not really doing anything extraordinary to make our travels happen. We've just decided to make traveling a priority in our lives and plan and save accordingly. I hope you enjoy some our of stories and experiences; we'll make sure to keep everyone updated from South Korea and around Asia as we get there!